Research in the School of Energy and Resources focuses on both the upstream and downstream development of energy and resources, covering a wide range of disciplines - from engineering and economics to environmental science and law.

Former environment and resources court Senior judge joins UCL

10 May 2013

25 March 2013

University College London has strengthened its academic group, appointing former Senior Judge Christine Trenorden as a Visiting Professor to its Australia campus.

Visiting Professor Trenorden has a distinguished legal career in the minerals, water and natural resources fields spending 17 years in the Environment, Resources and Development Court of South Australia, including the last eight as The Senior Judge. She retired from the bench in 2010 and has spent much of the past two years as the Environmental Law Programme Coordinator, at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Regional Office in Fiji.

Announcing the appointment today, UCL School of Energy and Resources, Australia Academic Director Dr Ady James says the move is a fillip for UCL as Visiting Professor Trenorden brings significant skills – not only from a long career on the bench – but with a commercial perspective honed during an early career as a barrister and solicitor.

“It is a significant coup for UCL to attract someone of Christine’s status and our research and teaching will benefit significantly from the injection of her real world practice. It’s this value which adds greatly to students in the classroom and her senior legal experience will add to our interdisciplinary work,” Dr James says.

Visiting Professor Trenorden says she’s excited to join UCL and to have the opportunity to put something back into the development of future leaders of the minerals, energy and natural resources sectors.

“Australia has a significant role to play in the future of a world where the climate is changing. The appropriate management of all natural resources in the context of climate change will increasingly intersect with accelerating demands for minerals and the prospect of new sources of energy. It’s an area where I have spent much of my career and in which I am passionate about,” Visiting Professor Trenorden says.

“UCL is one of the world’s best universities and when the chance to combine my passion for education and research with my passion for natural resources came, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.”

During 17 years in the Environment, Resources and Development Court, Visiting Professor Trenorden heard and determined cases covering development, mining operations and native title, natural resources management and protection and environmental management. She was concurrently a Judge in the District Court of South Australia.

She is an Honorary Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia and a Life Member of the National Environmental Law Association (Australia).